Mark Halperin: GOP ‘terms of surrender’

Veteran political journalist Mark Halperin said Monday that Democrats know they are winning the battle over the government shutdown and all that’s left is negotiating the Republicans’ “surrender."

“It’s just a question of the terms of surrender right now,” Halperin said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Part of what’s driving the dynamic is Democrats know they are winning and Harry Reid and the White House have the attitude of, ‘Why should we give anything because they’re coming our way,’ and they’re waiting.”

Text Size

-

+

reset

3 debt limit default scenarios

Halperin also said Democrats are trying to send a message to Republicans, who will cave.

“We’ve talked about Democrats giving Republicans an opportunity to save face: I think the White House and Harry Reid would like to humiliate the Republicans and like to send a message that if you’re led around by Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin going forward, the same thing will happen to you again. So they’re going for the best, toughest deal they can get,” Halperin said.

While the window on some sort of big deal has passed, the Time senior political analyst said, a short-term deal is still likely, as long as Congress can act quickly before Thursday’s debt ceiling deadline.

“There could be a miscalculation, because the Senate tends to think the House can act fast. The House tends to think the Senate act fast. They may not have back-timed this well enough to actually get it done. The big thing will be the markets in the next 48 hours; that will be clarifying. If the market goes bonkers in the next 48 hours, I think everybody will act fast,” Halperin said.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said the United States will reach its debt ceiling Oct. 17. Government has been shut down since Oct. 1, when Congress failed to agree to a bill extending government funding.